coachie

A fresh battery and some E5 and it’s actually running! A couple of fuel pipes felt a bit stiff so were replaced and the fuel system required priming to get the fuel to the carb but she’s now a first time starter. 
 
I’ve driven up and down the driveway a few times and the brakes appear to work and release OK, they’ll still require a strip and inspection though. 
 
I’m chuffed to bits she actually runs! 


IMG_0222.MOV

I don’t think they would be considered a sports car, moreover at the time a bit of a poseurs mobile, I don’t mean that with any disrespect, the Capri is one of my all time favourites, but my memory of them was they weren’t the car choice of the shrinking violet. It was a bit of flash for the average working man, nothing too fancy that he could use for work in the week and then on a Friday night take out to attempt to impress some women outside a Berni Inn. But on a Sunday he could fart about fitting any number of fairly bad taste accessories or tuning the carb. 
Credit to you also for not being one of these with big eared twats with baseball hats on, bumming them over with a price. No doubt a lot of people would have gone round completely insensitively and done all the ‘it’s fucked m8 I’ll give you £300’ and then made some dreadful YouTube video of them defiling it by painting it Matt black or some arse about tit attempt at changing the camber on the wheels. 

Thanks for being such a gentleman on the offer of £2000 - seems about right for an unknown quantity out of long term garaging. So many in this situation of closing an estate get hassled or told they need to pay for disposal etc.
Fantastic attitude there.
 
 

As i posted on the News 24 thread I've just repaired both front and rear bumpers, they had been bashed a bit and have come out surprisingly well, I'm waiting on a new bracket for the rear as that was a bit managed.


That dent is very annoying too as that wing be perfect if it wasn't for that!


chrome tailpipe will make it go quicker


A friend messaged me to say he found a pair of Laser headrests in his mums shed if i wanted them for £20! I was over the moon!


So much better, and the rocker cover, rad panel and timing cover as come back from being powder coated and now mostly fitted back on

That strut top is a job for another day, I might have to farm that job out once it has a mot, It now runs straight of the key too although it's not set up quite yet so only ran it for about a minute so far. and that's pretty much up to date now!

after the interior, it was exterior time, the best part of any project!










I couldn't believe how much better a bath made it look!

and i gave it a touch up and ran a mop over it.


I've spent so much time on ebay and Facebook just souring the broken or missing bit, side repeater lamp, boot spoiler plug, head rests, fog light switch, just silly bits like that.

I also fitted a brand new 32/36 DGAV Weber carb, for the sake of £280 it wasn't worth messing about with the completely seized and gummed up one, same as the radiator 

I wasn't going to bother but as a few of seem interested i thought I'd start a thread on the Capri that i bought last month.
It all started when a lady in the village who knows my wife asked her if I'd be interested in her husbands relatives old Capri they have in a garage, both him and his wife have died of old age and they have inherited the property and this old Capri had been in the garage for 20 years since he gave up driving at 83 and it was now being a 'burden', her words, not mind.
The car was over a hour away near Harlow so i shot down there to visit the ladies mother in law who was at the bungalow sorting it out, she gave me the key to the garage and told me to take a look whilst she made me a cup of coffee.
This is was i viewed when i opened the up n over door.






I admit i got a bit excited at this point! the story is what he bought the car new in 1986, used it up until 2003 where he got Parkinson's and was too ill to drive anymore racking up 95000 miles, whilst he maintained the car well he probably would have benefitted from parking sensors these days!
The lady said she'd been offered £900 by a neighbour but thought it was a bit low, i offered £2000 and she was more than happy! a few days later by mate helped me collect it.

Access wasn't great as it was at the rear garden with a short drive with no room for pulling the car out easily and onto a road that was rat run and blind pulling out on, nothings easy!


fortunately my mates truck managed to drag it out with locked brakes and big hammers!

we then dragged it backwards down the roads, swapped ends and pulled it into a nearby school entrance and onto the trailer


on the way back we got lost and managed to go past the original dealers, Gates in Harlow so we pulled in a got a photo!


eventually we managed to drag it into my garage, phew! that was hard work!

As you asked nicely.... It's a Hollier Mosquito. 😁

I went to a funeral yesterday, bloke I've known years had a heart attack after climbing up on his roof earlier in the day. Reasonable turnout with lots of old British motorcycles and for reasons that are unclear, I've become quite friendly with the funeral director over the past couple of years. Anyway in addition to her usual smile & cheery greeting, yesterday I got the full hug & kiss on the cheek. It wasn't until later that I realised; like the hangman shaking a chap's hand to gauge his weight, in her head, she was essentially measuring me up for a coffin!

I discovered a great Instagram account the other day that I knew a lot of people on here would enjoy. It's essentially 1990's Scottish chod-spots, from the account @automotive90s .
Enjoy.



More shite:
https://www.instagram.com/automotive90s/

In work, trying to set up the AV system for a big presentation this afternoon by the highers-up.

Not to flex, but we're running some pretty high end stuff these days.

A laptop - with a DVD player?

PINCH ME IM DREAMING

TOUCHSCREEN INTERFACE YO


Not one, but two VHS players, y'all.

Mercury - the future of telecommunications.
 
 
I jest. None of this stuff works anymore.
 
Two broken flip charts and a miniature whiteboard it is, then.

(I bought the whiteboard markers with my own money.)

Isuzu brought one model of car to the UK - that being the Piazza Turbo (JR120). There was an N/A Piazza/Impulse (JR130) but those were never available here. 
1662 were sold between 1985 and 1989/1990: that's not counting the original importer (Isuzu GB, of Charles Follett - Porsche Reading fame) going bust and leaving several hundred cars stuck at Sheerness docks. There were no 1987-model year Piazzas for the UK; International Motors took over Isuzu's UK concession selling the Piazza Handling By Lotus and the Trooper. The pre-Lotus cars were sold off by the Alan Day Group.  
Of course, Isuzu's trucks, lorries and off-roaders did (and continue to) sell well - as the market for cheaper and comfortable 90/110/Defender alternatives was still heating up, and survived the early 90s recession.  Bringing a rear-wheel drive coupe to the UK as even the established players (i.e. Capri and Manta) were dying out wasn't the greatest plan. Had it tried in '81 when the Piazza was new in Japan with a few N/A cars, it may well have done better. 

And yes, I still own the white Piazza. It's in storage waiting for the IPTOC to do some engine work. 

Yes.  They were absolute complete piles of crap.
This thing has to be one of very, very few vehicles that I've ever driven which I would say had absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Bloody horrible thing.
Seem to recall it was built onto a heavily hacked about version of some ancient truck chassis.
Bluebird were also mentioned.  In contrast to BMC, their product was pretty decent - though so utterly different to what the UK market was used to that it was doomed to failure.  Plus they never made any real effort to ensure they had the parts supply network in place - which is kinda important for a vehicle like a bus.
So this poor thing spent nearly its entire life sitting in the yard.

Which is a shame...not so much for the potential passengers but because it's an absolutely cracking thing to drive.
Thankfully it did find its way into preservation at least - with something like 50K km on the clock, which for a bus is ridiculous!

Great photo! Looks like they were popular with 'budget conscious' (A.K.A. tight-fisted) motorists here in Norfolk, as I've seen a couple of others on local plates:
 
Have we had Mahindra yet?
Or the Cherry Europe / Alfa ARNA?
 

Shanghai pick ups anyone? No? Well they tried, sort of. The Shanghai Auto Works wanted to extend the life of their ageing saloon by making a pick up variant a la Peugeot's 504. The development work to convert it was outsourced to Locomotors here in the UK. Shanghai had plans for exporting the pick up as well as monopolising the home market. Exporting it to Africa, Asia and Europe including the UK. With that in mind it was designed to take a Ford Sierra engine. As we all know the exports never happened, but there were at least 2 UK registered prototypes -






https://chinacarhistory.com/2018/12/23/the-shanghai-pickup-trucks/
Of course we've not heard the end of Shanghai Auto Works, now known as SAIC. Just have a close look at the etchings on a modern MG's window...

The answer to your question is negative.
 
I believe they originally intended to call them the Toyolet.

If I remember correctly the lorry division was bought from GM solely because of the lucrative MoD contract long enjoyed by Bedford. The TK derived MoD lorry was due for replacement and AWD were marketing a TL based successor. AWD promptly lost the contract to Leyland DAF or whatever they were called at the time for their much more modern T45.  AWD soldiered on for awhile but civilians at home didn't want a rehashed TK/TL and export customers finally got fed up with the TJ whose roots were firmly planted in the 1950's.

1959 Bedford TJ, one year into production.

1992 AWD TJ. Spot the difference.
 

Dad wasn’t too sure about leaving this on his drive as it might get interfered with. It towed fine on the dolly so decided to drag it back up to Stoke. It was all pretty uneventful. I don’t miss Birmingham inner ring road in rush hour though. I’m glad to be back in Stoke where sanity prevails! 

Thanks for the offer, it all went swimmingly though so I was able to sort it on my own. All the tyres inflated and the brakes were free so it was a case of pushing the Cit out of the garage and onto the road then getting it on the dolly. 
 
Overall condition? It looks great, a quick look over and there doesn’t seem to be any rot- I need to have a proper look though to see what’s what.
Interior looks great, engine isn’t seized and hopefully should run. I’ve seen images of rotten boot floors on 2CVs but this looks good. Overall it’s a massive result! 

Jeepers! 

Gold Peugeot 605 with undisclosed HGF?

I'm gonna need a code for this to put on my timesheet if he takes any longer.

This is literally the most exciting thing to happen since the time someone leaked a sex tape of Sally from Home and Away. On tenterhooks.

Phase 1… leaving home. Late already due to mithering daughter.